7 – Unifying Body, Mind and Feeling

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The seeker will be greatly assisted in this subtle combat with himself by understanding the importance of uniting his body, mind and feeling. Normally, one is always divided within oneself. One must learn to be whole – at least at certain times – if there is to be any hope for crossing a certain threshold by detaching oneself from what one usually is.

From the Depths of the Mists –
lecture: The Unification of the Three Sides of the Human Being’s Nature Necessary for Meditation

The seeker must perceive the malfunctioning in his being of a trinity which, because of the conditioning he has undergone since his childhood, never works as one. Normally, this trinity in him is disunited without his knowing, thus preventing him from being “whole” in what he seeks to accomplish, whether it is a question of his spiritual practices or even his activities in external life

These are exactly his mind, feeling and body which, because of long habit, never manage to be sufficiently united and in accord to assist the seeker in what he has decided to achieve, and this, in spite of the fact that he thinks he is being serious in his spiritual approach.

His mind must constantly be occupied with the object of his concentration; his body must participate through overall physical sensation, which he must try and retain permanently; finally, his feeling must sustain him with a profoundly devotional attitude which he must continually create in his being.

Obstacles to Enlightenment and Liberation – Chapter 6

When, through serious self-study, the seeker comes to know herself better, she will understand how this trinity within her practically never works in unison. She will discover that, at certain moments, her mind consents to participate in her efforts to remain concentrated during her meditation or her spiritual exercises carried out in active life, but that her sentiment is occupied elsewhere, by a melancholy of some kind, an indefinable yearning, or an imprecise displeasure with someone or something, and, on other occasions, it is her body that refuses to participate in her spiritual practices, because of weariness or fatigue, a sensual desire, or even, curiously, a great sense of physical well-being. However, it is principally her feverish mind that constitutes the major obstacle that she must dominate to be able to remain concentrated. The mind is always in movement, occupied by the memory of the past, anticipation of the future, or by something that attracts it and that it does not want to let go of. Consequently, the aspirant never knows inner tranquility enough to have the liberty to consecrate herself to her difficult task of staying present and true within herself when she carries out her various concentration exercises.

Moreover, she must understand that if one single aspect of this trinity within her consents to participate in her spiritual practices while the other two balk at or clearly obstruct them, she will have only a slight chance, or no chance, of succeeding in remaining concentrated, whether that be while she is performing a concentration exercise in her active life or during her meditation—or even, consenting to engage in the struggle with her rebellious attention. If, on the contrary, two of the three aspects consent to collaborate in her attempts to remain concentrated, she will then have a greater probability of drawing in the remaining one in order to carry out more effective work on herself.

Fruits of Awakening – Chapter 7

Considering the fact that the seeker is composed of a trinity, namely, her body, her mind, and her sentiment, it is indispensable to her to understand that, of these three elements, it is feeling that constitutes the driving force through which she will be able to keep the wheel of her spiritual work turning. (…/)

It is sentiment that gives a great pianist the capacity to play from memory, before a demanding public, eminently complex musical works, made up of thousands and thousands of notes, as well as countless changes of harmony and rhythm, without committing any errors. The same principle applies to the seeker; she needs to realize that it is her sentiment that can unite her mind and her body in such a way as to allow her to perform her meditation practice with the intensity necessary for her to be connected with another world within herself, a luminous world that she will be unable to avoid recognizing as sacred. .

In the Silence of the Unfathomable – Chapter 9

If, one day, he manages to make this self-sacrifice as he really should, that is with all his strength and extreme sincerity, something inexpressible will suddenly be felt in him. However, it can happen that at the beginning of this so unusual and unexpected experience, which gives him the strange sensation of losing what he thought was his identity—and, as a consequence of which, no longer recognizing himself—he will be seized with apprehension ! Habit within the human being is so tenacious that the sudden feeling of not recognizing oneself anymore might make him extremely afraid to start with.

Nevertheless, if he manages to overcome this fear in order to discover his Higher Nature—which, as he will recognize, is Divine—and be metamorphosed into It, he will feel flooded with a mysterious peace, unknown to this world, added to by the inexpressible joy of having finally recognized the ordinary side of himself for what it really is: a tissue of lies which, due to its uncontrolled impulses and insatiable desires for sensual pleasures, is only revealed to be a source of suffering !